Back at E3 2018, we were able to watch a demo of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and we've been itching for some hands-on time ever since. Now that we've finally got to play in the demo area we saw a few months ago, it's become clear that From Software's latest adventure is both miles apart from the Souls series, but also features certain callbacks that fans will notice on their journey

Since we were also able to see the HUD and get a better grasp of core mechanics, there were a lot of things in Sekiro that we hadn't caught before, and you can see our playthrough in the video below. Here's everything we noticed in our time with the demo:

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6 Minutes of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Gameplay

Both you and your enemies have a “Posture Bar” that slowly builds up when taking damage or not blocking at exactly the right time. If this meter fills on enemies, their guard breaks similar to being parried in Dark Souls or Bloodborne, and you can perform a "Shinobi Finisher" attack to kill or completely wipe out a health bar. If your own Posture Bar is filled and then broken, you will become staggered on the next hit or knocked down by powerful attacks, which will leave you extremely vulnerable until you are able to dodge away. Certain tougher enemies like the Samurai General are able to cast abilities that can lower their Posture Meter, which means playing defensively isn't always the way to go.

Health bars (as well as Posture Bars) show up on enemies you target and lock onto, but certain “Mid-boss” enemies’ health bars will always appear in the top corner regardless of who you are targeting. This allows you to focus on smaller enemies that can swarm you when engaging a mid-boss, without having to lose track of your progress on taking them down.

Stronger enemies, like Mid-bosses, have diamonds above their health bar that act as a sort of reserve health. You’ll need to deplete these by clearing their health bars more than once - either through repeated attacks or using a Shinobi Finisher to completely wipe out the health bar.

You can grapple to any point on the map marked by a green circle when in range to quickly get away or get above enemies for plunging attacks. You can also hang from ledges and stealthily assassinate from ledges.

Certain enemies, like the Chained Ogre, have grapple points at certain stages in a fight allowing for special attacks.

Shinobi Prosthetic Tools like the Axe or Flamespout use up a few White Spirit Emblems each time you trigger them. These can apparently be found around the world and from defeating enemies. Currently you can only have up to 15 at a time, developers confirmed you’ll be able to upgrade this limit.

Certain Prosthetic Tools like the Shurikens use less White Spirit Emblems than more powerful attacks like the Axe.

You can combine certain attacks, like using the Shinobi Prosthetic Flamespout Tool, and slashing your sword through the flames to light it on fire.

Some enemies serve as advanced warnings for their allies, and will sound alarms if they detect you - and they also may have increased sight.

Enemies that start to detect you will be notified on your HUD. A grey triangle means they are starting to notice your position, yellow means they are actively investigating where they thought they spotted you, and red means they have spotted and are currently engaging you. However, there is no way to permanently mark targets - and being aware of your surroundings is still a big key to survival.

You can sneak by using tall grass, hug walls for corner takedowns, hang from walls, or gain height advantages using tall trees and buildings. However, there appear to be some enemies that can detect your presence regardless of your stealthy actions - like a certain spear-wielding monk we fought.

Instead of Bonfires, Sekiro has Sculptor’s Idols placed as checkpoints throughout areas - seen as a multi-limbed statue with floating blue flames. Like other Souls games, resting at one will respawn all enemies in the area, excluding bosses and mid-bosses. It will also replenish your health and Healing Gourd charges.

There are icons above your health bar that represent your ability to resurrect after death. In the demo we had two icons, though after resurrecting, the other icon was crossed out until after defeating the current opponent. The developers have stated there are ways to replenish your resurrection charges - such as resting at a Sculptor’s Idol.

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Video: Engaging a Powerful Enemy in Sekiro

There will be secrets off the beaten path that make exploring worthwhile. We weren't able to find any secret areas in our playthrough, but we did find a very tough opponent behind the starting area of the demo - a very angry spear-wielding monk that had two extra health bars, and many unblockable attacks - even though he wasn't classified as a mid-boss. You can watch our fatal encounter with this foe in the video above.

Major bosses seem to be multi-stage fights, and have several diamond icons for multiple health bars – when you clear out one health bar, it regenerates and the boss’s moveset changes. This was true at least for the Corrupted Monk Boss at the end of our demo: depleting his first health bar caused the area to become shrouded in dark fog, causing the monk to vanish and attack from all sides with little warning.